State Capitol News

9:52 am

Wed March 3, 2010

Motorists will remain free to text and drive for now

Phoenix, AZ – The proposal by Sen. Al Melvin would have made it illegal formotorists to not only write or send a text message but also toread one. Melvin said the measure, backed by both cell phoneproviders and insurance companies, will save lives. Sen. RonGould said it's certainly possible that drivers who are textingare distracted. But he questioned why lawmakers were making onlythis procedure a crime when there's a long list of otherpractices by those behind the wheel.

(One of them was trying to get the last ice cube out of thebottom of a Big Gulp cup. You're driving down the road, you'retrying to get that last ice cube out of the bottom of the cup andit's blocking both your eyes. Clearly dangerous. We don't havespecial legislation to outlaw Big Gulps.)

But Sen. Barbara Leff said texting is different because a driverhas to pay attention to the keypad and screen.

(Your eyes are not on the road. It's not even like you had a cellphone where you can be talking and still looking up. When you aretexting, you're looking down. You are not looking at that road.And there's no way that I can believe that anybody would thinkthis is safe to be texting while you're actively driving yourcar.)